We are delighted to promote this event on behalf of the ESOL Research Community:
- Date: Thursday 25th January 2024
- Time: 4-5.30pm
- Location: Online via Teams
This group is led by Cathy Clarkson and Kathryn Sidaway.
Trauma Informed Research
We are pleased to host two talks where the presenters will share their research on the impact of trauma in the ESOL classroom. Each talk will last 20 minutes with 10 minutes for questions, then the final 30 minutes will be for more general discussions on the issues raised by the presenters.
Aleks Palanac - University of Leicester
'Beyond Resilience: Facilitating Learning and Well-Being in the Refugee Language Classroom'
This talk will focus on a recently-completed British Council ELTRA funded research project conducted by an interdisciplinary research team from the University of Leicester. The purpose of this study was to explore how language teachers might contribute positively to the psychological well-being and educational outcomes of refugee-background students (RBS) in English language provision in a University of Sanctuary setting, drawing on the fields of TESOL and TEAP, refugee studies, trauma psychology and positive psychology. This talk will outline the need for this research, how the study was conducted, what was found and what the implications for practice are, both at classroom and wider institutional levels. The corresponding research report can be accessed here.
About the speaker:
Aleks Palanac is Head of Sanctuary at the University of Leicester. She has been heavily involved in developing University of Sanctuary work at her institution and across the HE sector, particularly by widening participation to HE for refugee-background students through trauma-informed English language provision (such as the innovative RefugEAP Programme)
Tomasz John and Joanna McPake - University of Strathclyde
'Implementing research / researching implementation: Integrating trauma-informed pedagogy in training MSc TESOL students volunteering to teach English to Ukrainian Displaced People'
In this talk we will present outcomes from research on a pilot programme to integrate trauma-informed pedagogy in training for students enrolled on a MSc in TESOLIC and volunteering to teach English to Ukrainian Displaced People.
The teaching research nexus (McKinley, 2019; McKinley et al., 2021), which refers to the overlap between research into language teaching and the teaching itself, is fundamental to this discussion, as the researchers/ teacher-educators and student-volunteers engage in a cycle of research-training-teaching-reflection-research.
As the intervention has created greater awareness of the challenges that all the stakeholders might encounter in working with vulnerable adults, early findings suggest they felt more confident with handling trauma-related issues in the classroom context and that the on-going cycle integrating research and teaching practices allows them to make informed decisions about their respective learning, emerging teaching strategies and developing understanding of the research.
About the speakers:
Tomasz is a Teaching Fellow in TESOL, specialising in the internationalisation of HE, language policies and intercultural communication. Tomasz's research work challenges norms about international students and promotes a diverse academic culture, focusing on inclusive education and social justice in ELT.
Joanna is a linguistics expert specialising in multilingual education. Her research emphasizes the importance of language diversity in schools. McPake is renowned for her work on promoting Gaelic and other minority languages, contributing significantly to policy and curriculum development in Scotland's education system.
To register for this event, please complete this form - you will need to copy and paste this link into your browser:
https://forms.office.com/e/Nz4GsiE94X
For more information on the ESOL Research Community events, please see our Padlet (again - you will need to copy and paste this link into your browser): https://padlet.com/kathrynsidaway/your-esol-research-community-ft9b25fqqf15m1xt